This Website uses first and third party cookies to better understand your preferences, to offer you an optimal user experience, to keep track of web statistics, to collect your feedback, to provide online advertising, to enable the integration of third party plug-ins and to keep the Websites operating as smoothly as possible. By continuing to browse this Website, you consent to the use of cookies. Read more about these cookies and how to manage them by clicking here.

Insights from Our Industry Experts

Get purchase trends from analysts spanning more than 24 industries—in the industries that matter most to your business. Read blog posts and whitepapers, view infographics, and watch analyst video interviews to see what, how, and why consumers are spending,
both in store and online.

Insights

News

Trending

Our People Are Our Greatest Asset

The different experiences and perspectives of our people are at the heart of our success. Learn and work with some of the best in the market research industry. NPD offers opportunities in functions spanning client development to research
science, with strong benefits, flexible work schedules, and a global outlook.

Students

Job Search

Data-driven Growth

The NPD Group offers data, industry expertise, and prescriptive analytics to help you grow your business in a changing world. With offices in 27 cities across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, we help you measure, predict, and improve performance
across all channels.

Our Team

More

Our Customers

Global Presence

Over 2,000 companies worldwide rely on us to help them measure, predict, and improve performance across all channels, including brick-and-mortar and e-commerce. We have operations spanning the Americas, Europe, and APAC. Connect with us at one of our
offices across 29 cities.

Login

Resources

Free Trial

Global Presence

Over 2,000 companies worldwide rely on us to help them measure, predict, and improve performance across all channels, including brick-and-mortar and e-commerce. We have operations spanning the Americas, Europe, and APAC. Connect with us at one of our
offices across 29 cities.

Online Tribes Are Defining Health for Consumers in America

Chicago, January 7, 2019 — U.S. consumers are seeking their echo chambers of health or tribes through blogs and social media, much in the same way they use them for lifestyles and politics, reports The NPD Group. Health professionals, friends, and family were once go-to sources for information on health, but the rising number of bloggers and online communities enable consumers from anywhere on the planet to find like-minded individuals. And just like other echo chambers, oftentimes consumers will follow plans promoted by a blogger or online community as opposed to sound science.

An example of the internet’s influence on health is that nearly 60 percent of consumers who engage in clean eating, research their foods online. More than a quarter of adults rely on social media for information on GMOs and in which food they’re found. Consumers engaged in the lifestyles like paleo, Whole30, and plant-based often find their tribes online, according to NPD’s Eating Patterns in America.

Consumers making their own rules or following an online tribe that shares their beliefs plays out in dieting as well. For those who diet — and fewer U.S. consumers do — the most popular diet is one of their own making. It’s not that consumers create diets that are filled with indulgences; rather, they find lifestyles or tribes that match their own interests or values.

“Clearly this is a challenging environment for food and beverage marketers who are trying to reach broad audiences,” says David Portalatin, NPD
food industry advisor and author of Eating Patterns in America. “The key is to show flexibility and that their solutions can fit into a myriad of tribes, and understand that many Gen Zs and Millennials started with these tribes at a young age and will likely continue to follow their tribes as they age.”